In the middle of a speech contest, my heart decided to drop the mic — literally. This episode picks up from that collapse: the ambulance ride I don’t remember, my wife’s panic, the déjà vu of returning to the same hospital, and the surreal moment I learned the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest. Equal parts chaos, dark humor, and gratitude, Strike Two is a story about dying (again), surviving (again), and ruining a doctor’s pizza night in the process.

Fresh out of cardiac arrest, I wake up to meet a new kind of heart specialist—the electrician. What follows is part absurd, part profound: a blur of drugs, Easter timing, and my family scrambling to choose which implantable defibrillator will literally keep me alive. Between morphine buttons, misplaced humor, and quiet faith, I find myself upgraded—part man, part machine. A story about survival, surrender, and the strange comfort of wearing  my own spark plug.

This isn’t a podcast about resilience, silver linings, or life lessons wrapped in bow ties. It’s a prologue—a raw, honest introduction to the absurd reality of surviving a heart attack, a cardiac arrest, and a valve replacement.

In this opening episode, A.K. Thiagaraj lays out what’s coming: dark humor, uncomfortable truths, saxophone riffs (yes, that’s him), and a story not about bouncing back—but just making it through.

The real story begins in Episode 1. But this one sets the tone.

Beaten by life. Still beating.

Back home after cardiac arrest—with CPR bruises, pneumonia, and a $50K shock device in my chest. My dog barely noticed. My family tried to keep things normal. I felt anything but. This episode covers the first painful, disorienting, and darkly funny week of recovery—when survival didn’t feel like victory.

Fresh out of surgery, I walk into my electrophysiologist’s office — the same guy who just wired my heart to a machine. What follows is part science lesson, part tech demo, and part existential crisis. From “plumbing vs. wiring” to watching my heart get remotely controlled by a wand, this episode dives into the absurd, miraculous world of cardiac engineering — and what it means to live with a literal power source in your chest.

Fresh out of cardiac arrest and still reeking of antiseptic, I told my boss I only needed two weeks off. Why? Because fear, money, and ego make a hell of a combo. In this episode, I talk about rushing back to work, learning to breathe again (literally), descending eight flights of stairs in a Seattle fire drill with an ICD in my chest, and picking up the saxophone like it was going to save my life. Then—just as things were stabilizing—2020 showed up. The pandemic didn’t just pause the world. It collided with my fragile recovery.

If you’ve ever survived something—and had to pretend you were fine—this one’s for you.